AFI Fest, the American Film Institute’s annual film festival, continues at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The Daily Bruin’s Sebastian Torrelio and Tony Huang are attending until the festival’s close on Thursday, screening several of the biggest films being put up for audience award consideration. On the fifth day of AFI Fest, Torrelio and Huang reunited once more, seeing a handful of foreign films by acclaimed directors that left a lot to think about, for better or worse.
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“Child’s Pose”
Directed by Calin Peter Netzer
Zeitgeist Films
Romanian director Calin Peter Netzer’s “Child’s Pose” won the Golden Bear at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, continuing the sudden emergence of Romanian filmmaking that some have dubbed the “Romanian New Wave.” The film follows an overly attached mother, Cornelia Keneres (Luminita Gheorghiu), and her decidedly under-attached son, Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache), who are forced to reconcile and collaborate after the son runs over a child on the freeway. The family is upperclass, with all the money and connections that come with, while the victim’s family consists of poor villagers – a classic scenario laden with dramatic potential.
However, Netzer seems to have a tenuous idea of how he wants this story to play out. The film utilizes a handheld camera style reminiscent of “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu,” the film that put Romania on the map – the frame shakes and bobs and swivels and pans with a freedom (and instability) that is a little headache-inducing. However, the story itself seems to demand a more conventional visual approach. Netzer tends to settle into over-the-shoulder conversations, and he cuts fast to reorient scenes, not really taking advantage of the free range of his camera.
Moreover, the drama proper of the movie is stripped of any emphasis until its last act, leaving viewers to wonder where any of this could possibly go. As a character study, it’s deficient – Cornelia is given a surprisingly sympathetic eye, and Barbu a surprisingly unsympathetic one, but they remain opaque. As a morality tale, it feels too fragmented, too eager to go off fun little tangents. So when Netzer tries to jerk tears at the end there’s nothing much to feel for: We don’t know why this is important.
—Tony Huang
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“The Congress”
Directed by Ari Folman
Drafthouse Films
It’s hard to determine where to begin with “The Congress.” On one hand, director Ari Fulman, whose previous animated work on Academy Award-nominated documentary “Waltz with Bashir” reflects heavily in the stylized creativity of “The Congress,” is trying to be ambitious. He’s attempting to wrap up the entirety of filmmaking’s past, present and future into a bow and offer its interpretation as a medium to the world. On the other hand, that’s a bit much for one man to do.
“The Congress” follows actress Robin Wright as herself, a woman whose career is anchored to her success in “The Princess Bride” and “Forrest Gump” but is now far past her prime (and apparently never found acclaim in this universe for the recent “House of Cards” series). She meets with a representative of the fictional Miramount Studios who wants to buy the rights to her image and personality, scanning her into computer format for the studio to forever own, producing films starring her digital self with the help of visual effects.
The first half of the film chronicles her indecision and lack of willingness to accept the strange barriers the filmmaking business is crossing, though that isn’t the strange part. The second half of the film, entirely depicted in psychedelic animation, is a look at the world decades into the future, where humans rely on chemicals and drugs to create a fantasy world for themselves, as zany or natural as they wish.
By this point, Fulman has abandoned one moral message to tell a larger story, only finding minor success in comparison. His determination is so great that it’s difficult to ignore or bash his aspirations, but it’s also difficult to declare it as much of a triumph as it likely appears on paper.
—Sebastian Torrelio
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“Heli”
Directed by Amat Escalante
NDM
Mexican director Amat Escalante won the best director prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for “Heli,” a harrowing tale of an everyman factory worker who accidentally gets into trouble with the drug cartel for disposing of cocaine stolen by his sister’s boyfriend. With the plot kept to a minimum – there are really only about three significant events in the film – Escalante feels free to pare down the film to essentials, creating an abstract, minimalist microcosm of a society that feeds off violence and its aftereffects.
Much has been made about a particular scene in the movie, in which a man’s genitals are doused with liquor and set on fire. It’s certainly a graphic image, although it isn’t a close-up and lasts only long enough to register. In fact, the physical torture that would be the focus of most movies of the type is dismissed of rather quickly, leaving plenty of room for a languid rumination on what happens after the horror.
Escalante loves to give his images breathing room – his compositions are powerful and confident, with a stark physicality that becomes breathtaking as we linger on them. This ties in to the philosophy of the film in general: We have the abstract, near-unbelievable violence, but that goes by fast – what’s pushed instead to the forefront is recovery, and time. In a sense, the film is about inertia, about actions that go beyond the act itself to affect more than intended. For a film about drug cartels, the message behind this aesthetic is obvious, which perhaps damages the complexity of the film. But for assured visual power, there are few films that match up to “Heli” this year.
—Tony Huang
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“Philomena”
Directed by Stephen Frears
The Weinstein Company
The most intriguing part of British dramedy “Philomena,” as well as the main aspect driving the entirety of the film’s relaxed, enjoyable demeanor, is how effortlessly everyone involved seems to be playing along. Steve Coogan, who acts as journalist Martin Sixsmith and serves as one of the film’s writers, is humorous even when he’s not trying to be humorous, playing the everyman role to a tee. Judi Dench, who seems to never have to put effort into anything, embodies her role as the extraordinary Philomena Lee with pain and reluctance, but also a charming love that pervades throughout her character and the atmosphere of the entire film.
Based on a real story, published by the real Martin Sixsmith in 2009 as “The Lost Child of Philomena Lee,” the film follows his assignment to publish a humanistic story of Philomena, who had her child taken away when she was a teenager at a Catholic convent. She attempts to locate her son, whose records have all been mysteriously destroyed at the convent, traveling to great lengths to discover his potential successes or failures, and his recognition for her existence.
“Philomena” is serious, charming, heartbreaking and hilarious almost entirely at the same time. Coogan’s script, written with Jeff Pope, is a delightful work that escalates joy into even the saddest moments of the film. It overcomes delicate thematic messages, such as those of religion and journalistic integrity, with a smart sophistication, playing with sincerity and humor to make anything work in director Stephen Frears’ favor.
Coogan entertainingly introduced the film himself, accompanied by the real Philomena Lee, whose journey throughout the film positions her as the festival’s true heroine with a willingness to open up that is hard not to recommend listening to.
—Sebastian Torrelio